Long Balls: Canadians abroad (October 3)

Welcome to another edition of Long Balls: Canadians Abroad. It’s a service for those without time to wade through multi-page forum threads to keep tabs on Canadian footballers abroad. We won’t list all of the Canadians abroad, just the weekly performances we feel are most relevant to our readers. Or in the case of Isidro Sanchez, relevant to no one really.

Championship
Simeon Jackson led the line for Canadians this weekend, potting a brace for Norwich City and going a long way to reassure one and all that he’s worthy of the jump up to England’s second tier. Sure the goals were against bottom-dwellers Bristol, but Jackson put them past David James, and he played in the World Cup, so he must be good. Right? Regardless, that makes three goals in three starts for Jackson (who, custom demands we note, is freaking awesome), and Norwich is sitting in third. No wonder 40 per cent of you voted for Simeon as Most Likely to Succeed in Britain this year.

Elsewhere, Iain Hume is making the most of his move from Barnsley to Preston North End. Having bagged a match-winner last week, Hume earned Preston the opening goal of a 1-1 draw with Reading. It seems Hume chased down a lost cause and, just keeping the ball in touch, cross for the goal. According the PNE’s match report, Hume was also inches away from bagging at least a couple of goals of his own. Here’s hoping that Iain continues his run of form at his new club.

Jamie Peters plays 90 minutes for Ipswich in a 2-1 win over Leeds.

David Edgar not in the squad as Burnley drew Millwall 1-1.

TurkeyJosh Simpson went the full 90 minutes with Maniasaspor in a 0-2 loss to Kayserispor.

Mike Klukowski — conspicuous by his absence in the list of 18 names Canada manager Stephen Hart called to play against Ukraine this Friday — played 90 minutes as Ankaragucu beat Konyaspor 4-1.

Netherlands
Atiba Hutchinson played 90 minutes at rightback for the second week in a row as PSV Eindhoven beats VVV Venlo 3-0. On our most recent podcast we bandied around the idea of Atiba taking over the rightback spot for Canada, but decided that we need him far, far more in the middle of the pitch.

Scotland
Striker Marcus Haber heads off to the Ukraine on, well, something of a streak I suppose? He came into the match in the 77th minute and scored his first league goal as St Johnstone beat Hibs 2-0.

PortugalPedro Pacheco, also headed to the Ukraine, sat on the bench (as captain) as his Santa Clara beat Sporting Covilha 3-1 in the Portuguese second division. I hope that’s because he’s recovering from injury.

Mexico
Over the past few months I’ve grown increasingly enamoured by the idea of having someone from the Mexican Primera Division feature for Canada. The only remote hope of this happening rests on the shoulders of Isidro Sanchez, and he’s not doing a great job carrying the load. Again no Isidro even on the bench this weekend, although maybe you can take some consolation from the fact his team, Puebla, finally won a match after three straight losses, beating Gallos Blancos 2-0. Or on second thought, maybe you can’t. Isidro’s less likely to break into a winning squad than a losing one.

The maybes (as in, maybe some day they’ll play for Canada, but maybe they won’t)
I’m not sure whether readers feel it’s much use to continue to track Jonathan de Guzman as a Canadian abroad, even with an asterisk beside his name. But I will, because I have a hunch we may yet see him play for Canada. He played 90 minutes in a midfield attacking role as Mallorca earned a surprising 1-1 draw with Barcelona in the Nou Camp. And if I’m not mistaken, junior de Guz took the corner from which Mallorca equalized.

David Hoilett finally got back to the pitch in Premier League play, coming on in the 86th minute to try and do something as Blackburn trailed Stoke City 1-0. He didn’t manage it.